


To End the "Chocolate" Cornet

by stingray5555



Series: A "Chocolate" Cornet [5]
Category: BanG Dream! (Anime), BanG Dream! Girl's Band Party! (Video Game)
Genre: Blood, Gen, Grief/Mourning, Insanity, Suicide
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-31
Updated: 2020-03-31
Packaged: 2021-03-01 05:54:09
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,667
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23410006
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stingray5555/pseuds/stingray5555
Summary: Saya is finally caught for the crimes she's committed.
Series: A "Chocolate" Cornet [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1408573
Comments: 16
Kudos: 68





	To End the "Chocolate" Cornet

Saya ceased running and stopped by a vending machine on the side of the dark, silent street, the sound of heavy footsteps and rustling clothes of the person chasing her becoming louder and louder. Having lost too much blood and exerting herself beyond exhaustion, the bloodstained girl rested her injured head on the side of the metal casing, producing a bang since she was too weak to lay her head gently. The light of the machine illuminated the surrounding area and its faint hum vibrated through her skull before a sudden force propelled her backward to a chain-link fence.

“Yamabuki-san.” There was now a firm grip on her neck, strong enough to cause her difficulty in breathing. A sweet scent of flowers wafted through the air.

“Hello, Misaki.” Saya’s weary eyes glared back at the girl’s stern gray eyes.

“So you’re the person behind all the deaths, huh?” In her hand was her phone, still connected to the call between her and the emergency services. “You must feel pretty ecstatic for taking three lives in one day.”

“You heard the news about Hina and Sayo that quickly, eh? Word gets around quickly.”

“Of course. They’re the headline in tonight’s news. ‘Twin sisters mercilessly killed in their own home’. And they’re labeling ‘Saya Yamabuki from Hanasakigawa’ as the main suspect. I thought killers were supposed to be smart, not careless? You just had to let someone see you, huh?”

“Hmpf…” Saya shook her head in indignation, clearly knowing her folly. “So, why are you out here with a bouquet right to my face? Having a date with a special someone?”

“No. Kokoro insisted every student from both Haneoka and Hanasakigawa to gather at the city park tonight at eight-thirty to mourn for the people you’ve killed. Good thing I chose to stop for coffee along the way to find you taking another innocent girl's life. Doesn't your heart wane even a little? Seeing Kokoro with tears in her eyes this morning made me very heartbroken.”

“Well… Kokoro could use a break from being happy, you know~”

Misaki slammed the side of her phone onto Saya’s face, quickly ending the wicked grin that she was about to make. “You’re despicable. Seeing you around at school, you always seemed so friendly and courteous to everyone else. I didn’t expect a demon to be hiding underneath that cheerful smile. What’s gotten into you?”

“Ehehe, you can ask the corpse in Hazawa Cafe for your answer.”

Having had enough of Saya’s sardonic responses, Misaki tightened her grip around Saya's neck for a moment, causing her to start gasping for air, before sending her falling to the ground with a swift punch. She wiped the blood that had dripped onto her hands and rested her foot on Saya's stomach while ending the call upon hearing the sound of sirens coming closer. “Now be a good girl for once and stay put until the police arrive.” Saya lay silently on the cold, hard sidewalk, gazing up at the faint stars and outline of clouds overhead behind Misaki’s looming silhouette before finally losing consciousness just as she felt her body being lifted off the ground.

_Is this it…? Am I going to die without being able to see my family and friends? No… I must go back to them… and apologize for everything… Please, let me see them!_

After praying long and hard for her last wish to come true, Saya finally opened her eyes and found herself standing on a bed of infinite black woven silk with nothing but white surrounding her. The deep black color of the cloth stretched towards the horizon as if dividing the entire space around her in half. The air was frighteningly cold and thin; every breath Saya took felt like she was inhaling nothing at all. 

“Where am I?” she whispered to herself wrapping her arms around her body, which was frozen in place. Taking even a single step forward was a challenge in itself. Nothing except for her breathing could be heard until a moment later when a whisper-like sound broke the surrounding silence.

_Help me…_

A faint voice suddenly called out to her from all sides. Saya barely recognized the voice, but it sounded so hurt and distressed. She looked around once again, wondering where it was coming from.

_Stop it… please…_

The voice was becoming clearer, sounding like that of a female. Saya was quick to realize that it sounded very familiar, but she could not deduce who it belonged to. It could have sounded like Tsugumi, Sayo, or her other victims, but none of their voices matched exactly.

_Saya! Please help me! I think he’s going to kill me!_

At that moment, Saya’s heart sank as she realized that the voice calling out to her was that of her mother. Even though there was nothing there, she watched the scene unfold above her in the white, imagining everything in her mind. She remembered this scene so vividly; if it wasn’t for her brave act of stepping up to stop her father, he might as well have beaten her mother to death. It was on that day Saya's view on her father changed, the day when she promised to seek revenge against her father. 

Saya looked down and discovered that the silk she was standing on had transformed into dark red. It was the color of blood, blood that streamed from her mother’s broken skin. Then her thoughts shifted to the blood that she poured out of her victims. The same screams that she heard from her mother were the same screams she heard from the innocent girls she murdered.

Then she saw her mother's body freeze. Lifeless, lying in the infinite void with the wounds her father inflicted. Teardrops flowed from her eyes before completely stopping in time. Then her father stopped and disappeared along with every trace of his existence, never to be seen again. She saw her siblings running inside the room where it had all happened, but they also froze in time after their heads fixated themselves to Saya’s direction. Nothing but horror was etched onto their little faces.

“D-Dad…?” their little scared voices reverberated around her.

"What?! No!" Saya cried, shaking her head violently in utter disbelief. “I-I’m not dad! I’m not… NO!”

Saya’s legs weakened, and she suddenly stumbled. However, instead of being caught by the silk, her body did not stop, and the silk underneath traveled along with her. As she fell, the deep red circled her, slowly enveloping the light above. Eerie voices that sounded like her victims’ wails seemed to call out to her from the fading light, and the longer she fell, the louder these voices became. When the dissonance had reached deafening levels, the light finally disappeared into a point and the surrounding area became total darkness. Immediately afterward, Saya struck an invisible, immovable object and instantly shattered into pieces, uttering one last cry that echoed into the darkness.

“Aaargh!”

Saya suddenly awoke after she felt her body disintegrate. To her utmost shock, she found herself lying on a bed in a room that looked foreign to her. She realized where she was however when she saw the dextrose bag hanging overhead on a line beside her.

“Saya?” She heard a very familiar voice. “You’re awake…”

“Onee-chan…” a lighter voice sounded right after. Saya looked to her left to see Sana clutching her hand tightly, beside her little brother Jun who was also looking at her amazed. Her mother was sitting on a chair near the foot of the bed, beside a table with a basket of fruits and a vase with a rose on top. She was happy to see that her daughter was still alive, but her sullen expression did not fully show that feeling.

“Mom! Sana! Jun!” Saya exclaimed, sitting up to see her dear family members clearer. “I’m alive! I thought I was gone…”

"Saya!" beamed Jun, jumping up and down in glee. "We thought we were going to lose you… you never moved for almost two days!"

Her mother did not change her serious face and glared at her. “You’re celebrating your survival… when you were better off dead!”

“Eh...?”

“Do you still remember what you had done?”

Saya’s cheerfulness swiftly disappeared, and she nodded her head regretfully. “Yes…”

"You're going to court after you've fully recovered, did you know that? Even though we got you a good lawyer, it’s going to be very difficult to prove you innocent! The next few days will possibly be the last time that we will ever get to see you again!"

"Yes… I know…"

Jun leaned over on the bed and gazed sadly into Saya's eyes. “Why did you do it, onee-chan-”

“Don’t call her that, Jun,” their mother interrupted. “She’s… no longer family.”

"H-Huh?" Sana looked at her mother who lowered her head. "But-"

"I said, she's no longer family!" her mother shouted angrily at her three children. Jun said nothing more as he joined Sana in holding his older sister's hand tenderly, while Saya herself was failing to control the tears that were now falling from her eyes.

"I… I'm sorry, Mom…" she cried softly, wiping her tears on her arm. "I'm so sorry-"

Her mother stood up with the help of her walking cane and continued shouting at her furiously. "You are a disgrace to our family! You have brought our household to shame with your wicked acts! No one will see us in the same way as before ever again!"

"Mom!" cried Sana, stepping in front of her mother who was about to punch her injured daughter. “Don’t get mad… please…”

With a long, drawn-out sigh, she lowered her fist and shook her head. "I… I apologize for my outburst…"

Sana helped her back on the chair, and the whole room went silent. Saya’s siblings nervously paced around, without a clue on how to continue talking in the tense atmosphere. Her mother stared outside the small window without sparing a fraction of a second to look at her eldest daughter’s teary eyes.

“Where’s Dad?” Saya asked her mother, sniveling. “C-Can I see him? He hasn’t run away from us yet, right?”

She answered as she continued looking outside. “He left the room several minutes ago, telling us that he was going to go to the bathroom. It is unusual for him to take that long to return. Maybe he had run away from us. I don’t care anymore.”

The room fell silent once again, but only for a moment when her mother stood up and approached Saya. “Jun, Sana… your sister and I are going to chat in private. Please go outside and wait at the nurse’s station.”

The two of them looked at their mother in initial protest, wanting to be beside their sister longer, before sighing and leaving the room.

“My child…” She took a seat near the middle of the bed and rested her hand on Saya’s body. “Tell me everything… why you did it… how you did it…”

“No… I don’t want to…” she feebly replied. “I’m a murderer and that’s it. A worthless human being. Someone who isn’t fit to be in a family.”

“Saya, you were so kind and loving, always so happy ever since you were a baby!” Her mother began to tear up herself. “I do not understand what would drive you to do all of this… Please, Saya… tell me why! It is my right as a mother to know the problems that my children face!”

“I… I just could not control my urge to kill anymore…”

“Why… why would you want to kill in the first place?”

“It’s… it’s… it’s…” Saya was having so much trouble telling the truth to her mother that she was starting to choke on her own words.

“Saya! Tell me!”

“You should know the answer; it’s Dad!”

Her mother stopped and gave Saya a perturbed gaze, shocked at what she had said. “Your father? How would your father cause you to kill five innocent girls?!”

“Because killing your father is a more despicable crime than killing four innocent girls, isn’t it? It is embedded in our very culture that the murder of a parent is one of the most horrendous crimes you can commit, is it not?”

Her mother swallowed hard. Was the ultimate reason why Saya committed her crimes was because of what her father had done to them? She remembered the day that Saya heroically stepped in front of her inebriated, uncontrollable father. She remembered the bleeding wounds on her head and arms that she had received from his strong punches and kicks. She remembered the crying faces of her two youngest children watching helplessly from behind the wall. And she remembered all the instances she wasn’t able to sleep because the cries of her eldest being shouted at late at night kept her awake.

“Mom… I was stupid. I let my own wild emotions take hold of me. I told myself that I was a strong girl, and I should step up and solve problems myself. Stepping up to my dad, and such. But I knew very well that killing him would instantly grant me a death sentence. So I kept my emotions deep in me, locked away and hidden from the rest of the world. I was fine with it at first, but with every time that he shouted, yelled, and treated us unfairly, holding it in was becoming more and more difficult. I would have nightmares every time I went to sleep. I even kept a kitchen knife under my pillow because I'd never know when he'd barge into my room and hurt me again. I was full of anxiety whenever I came home because going home didn't give me calm and solace anymore.”

“I was too frightened to tell anyone. I didn’t think my friends would offer any help. Kasumi and the rest of my bandmates wouldn't know what to do. Telling the teachers also did not give me confidence that they would help. Telling you, of course, was the last thing I wanted to do, because I knew you still loved Dad a lot. See? Why would I tell anyone? My father will find out and punish me for it!”

“The rest of the story goes; you became ill, Dad did not know anything about handling the bakery, so he entrusted me to watch over it. Balancing school and work took a heavy toll on me. There was no more quality in the products that we were producing, so our profits slowly waned. There was no more money to pay for your hospital bills, so we went into debt. Dad was very disappointed in me and shouted at me day and night. I cried. His part-time job did little help to alleviate the enormous costs. At that point, my locked-up emotions had shot beyond its threshold and I was completely insane on the inside.”

“That’s when I took my first life. Tortured her, mangled her, drained her completely of blood! Ahaha, my thirst for blood was unquenchable! I put it in our cornets, in our eclairs, in our hot chocolate! I did not care at all! The catharsis felt so amazing! Then the few customers who still came back loved the unique flavor of the blood products. So I went and killed more! And all that led me to where I am now: lying in a hospital bed with a large wound on my head with multiple cases stacked on top of me. I find it funny how they still put me in the hospital instead of just killing me. Do unto others what they do unto you, right?”

“So I’m inevitably going to end up locked behind bars, huh? Maybe even get sentenced to death, ahaha! Before that, I want to at least have the chance to talk to him, even for only a few minutes. Now that I lost any chance to take away his life myself, I'll just tell him to stop being what he is now and change for the better. He should know that we’re still family and family looks out for each other. I’m doing this for you, Mom. For Sana… and Jun…”

“Saya…” She tucked her head underneath her daughter’s arms and began to bawl. “You still have… the kindest, most selfless heart in the world… but I just can’t accept having a murderer for a family member! I don’t know what to do anymore…”

Saya bent over and gave her mother a big hug. “Don’t think about me anymore, please… I have accepted the consequences of my actions. All I want now is for Dad to finally start being kind to us. To stop shouting at us and attacking us. To finally become responsible and step up for the family. When I get to see Sana and Jun grow up to be beautiful, nurtured adults, I will become the happiest big sister in the world.”

Wiping the tears from her mother’s eyes, Saya looked around the room. “Mom… I want to go see Dad now.”

“Let me go find him.”

Her mother went out of the room, leaving Saya to dabble in her thoughts again. If she had just told her mother or even her father about her tucked-away feelings, she would have gotten her sweet release after maybe a single long heart-to-heart talk. Would that cause him to change? Maybe not. But maybe she was also too hard on her father. He did take the time and effort to find a job, so he was indeed trying to provide sustenance for the family. Plus, outside of his terror hours, he was actually a kind man. He sometimes helps Sana and Jun with their homework when they need it and he helps deliver big orders of bread with his van. Maybe his psyche was just very sensitive to mood swings.

He was still a human being after all, just like herself. He deserves a second chance. Maybe he’ll indeed change.

She continued thinking about her father when all of a sudden, she heard a loud screaming outside followed by shuffling of feet toward the direction of her room. The door suddenly flew open revealing the face of her aghast mother standing in front of Sana and Jun, who were just as horrified.

“Saya!” her mother trembled. “Your father…”

“W-What happened?” she asked, fearful of the response she was about to receive.

“He’s… he’s dead!”

“What?!”

Saya immediately jumped out of bed, causing her dextrose needle to rip out of her wrist, and pushed her family aside on the way out the door. She followed the faint trail of bloody footsteps that one of her siblings left behind, passing by shocked nurses and patients alike. The trail led her to a hallway lined with patient rooms and into a small crowd of maintenance crew standing in front of the bathroom. And she knew what they were there for.

“Move out of the way!” she shouted, running in between them and entering the bathroom. Once she saw his lifeless body lying underneath the sink, she dropped to the floor unable to believe what she was seeing. There was an army knife tucked in between his still fingers. A small cut was on the side of his neck where most of the blood originated from, indicating that he had stabbed himself. The blood then spread all across the white tiled floor, with small splotches on the sink and mirror. There was no evidence of a struggle, meaning that her father, the man she feared for most of her life, had undoubtedly committed suicide.

Saya was speechless. In an instant, her father was gone, like it happened in her dreams. There was no way to bring him back to life again. She remembered how badly she wanted to kill her father. Now, he was. And what good did her father’s death bring to the world? Oddly, Saya could not think of an answer.

The world began to sway around her as her mind began to go haywire. If she had killed her father with her own hands before all this, she would be charged with death for it. If she held in her emotions much longer than she did, the bakery would surely go out of business and their lives would be put into jeopardy. Then she had the most surprising realization. If she indeed went out and sought help, theoretically her father should become a better man, right? But unless a miracle happened, a single working man would have a lot of difficulty paying off their massive debts and medical bills, plus their house and all the expenses it took to support the family. It will be the same end no matter what she did. If she did fulfill her wish, nothing would come out of it.

It was her destiny to die miserably.

_Now that he lies dead in the hospital bathroom, I’ll never be able to have the satisfaction of killing him! Why, o why did I ever make that stupid wish take over my life? For as long as I live, I’ll have a large, gaping hole inside me that nothing can ever remedy! It just makes everything feel worse than it already is… Well, what can I do? I lost my family, I lost my friends, I lost everything that ever mattered to me. What reason do I still have to continue living?_

_Well, at least I’ve finally escaped the hell that exists on this earth. Dad was the devil and I was his undeniably loyal follower, forced to worship him for being his daughter. Hehe, come to think of it, I feel like I’ve become my father now. Worked so hard for nothing, getting mad at little things…_

With a heavy heart, Saya plodded out of the bathroom and went back to her room, where her mother was busy calming Sana and Jun down despite being in hysterics. “Mom,” she spoke, catching the attention of the three people in front of her. “I want to go to school today.”

“W-Why?” she asked, holding the crying Sana in her arms.

“I want to see everyone. My classmates, my friends, my band… everyone I knew…”

“What? The hospital will not allow that-”

“Tell them it’s my final wish.” Saya brushed the wound on her arm with the tip of her finger. “Let them escort me with hundreds of police officers with pistols pointing at my head, I don’t care! I want to see everyone for the last time. I just want to give them a few words in person… please!”

Her mother paused for a moment before sighing and shaking her head erratically. “You tell the nurses that. I… I don’t want to think or do anything else right now…”

So Saya nodded and exited the room without saying a word, and that would be the final time she would ever talk to her mother and siblings again.

“Miss.” Saya approached the nurse’s station round the hallway and tapped her fingertip on the desk. “May I request a short visit to my school?”

The two nurses manning the station looked at the bereft eyes of the patient standing in front of them. They knew well she was the murderer being treated in their hospital.

“Yamabuki Saaya,” one of the nurses replied after a long pause. “I’m sorry, but the law enforcement agency has put you under hospital arrest, meaning that you are restricted-”

“So? What else do I have to lose?!” Saya, in her utter grievance, begged on her knees, choking on her own words. “Can’t I get the chance to see the last people in this world who possibly still care about me? I lost my family in mere minutes! I had to see my father lying in a pool of his blood! I had to hear the painful words leave my mother’s mouth saying that I was no longer a part of them! My younger siblings who looked up to me as a figure of guidance now frown upon my very presence! I am an outcast; an alien living in a world where no one will ever accept me! Please… please give me a chance to see my friends even for just a few minutes… It’s my final request before I fully disappear from the face of society…”

Silence. The two nurses looked confusedly at each other as the girl in front of them wept. One of the nurses then picked up the telephone and dialed a number while the other sat beside Saya to calm her down. The call lasted quite a while, about two minutes, after which the nurse told Saya to wait while the people on the other side of the line assessed her request.

Miraculously, Saya got her request. Once her dextrose line was reattached to her arm, she was placed on a wheelchair accompanied by a nurse and three police officers and wheeled to the front lobby of the hospital. She recognized the hospital since it was where her mother was brought during her sick days. Saya then saw people donning casual and business attire approach her with cameras and microphones. She simply stared at the journalists with cold, empty eyes as camera flashes filled the lobby, and any attempts to approach her and ask her questions were halted by the police officers. Once she was out of the building, she was placed inside a police mobile while the journalists and news reporters continued to take pictures of her. Two officers sat on either end of her to prevent her from escaping.

It was four fifteen in the afternoon when the car pulled up in front of the gates that Saya knew all too well. The name of the school where many of her wonderful memories were made shone in the setting sun’s light. Luckily for her, there was class today, and she knew it was going to be dismissal time in a few minutes. Instead of letting her out immediately however, the police officers instructed her to list down the names of the students she wanted to meet.

“Arisa Ichigaya.” Saya dictated the names which an officer wrote on a notepad. “Rimi Ushigome. Tae Hanazono. Kasumi Toyama.”

Saya was then made to wait inside the car while the police went inside to assemble the girls she requested. One policeman stayed behind to watch over her in case she tried to escape. She heard the buoyant chimes of the bell ring for dismissal that now sounded dolorous to her, followed by the cheerful chattering of students pouring out of the building. Upon spotting the first girls to emerge from the gates, Saya could not help but stare at their uniforms in sadness. Truth be told, she actually liked wearing those uniforms. It was her identity; she had a school where she could go to learn new things and hang out with friends. But now, she was stuck with a dark green hospital gown, and in the future, she would be forever stuck with prison clothes. Gone was her chance of going to a regular high school ever again. She’ll envy the kids who study here for the rest of her life.

While she dwelled on her thoughts, staring out the window at the sun continuing to set behind the distant buildings, the police officers returned. They told Saya to get out of the car, which she did with the help of the nurse. They set her back in the wheelchair, hung the dextrose line on its stand, and wheeled her inside.

“Yamabuki-san, you have twenty minutes,” an officer told her.

Saya nodded. As she was brought inside the gates and into the wave of people, a curious crowd began to form around her, wondering what this girl with a large bandage on her head was doing here. Some of the students though, which were her former classmates, recognized her almost immediately.

“It’s her!”

“S-Saya-chan?! She’s here!”

“Is she the murderer? She killed my classmate!”

“I hope you rot in prison, you… you animal!”

Very clearly could Saya hear the words being uttered by her former schoolmates. Every statement shot and pierced her like bullets. Imagine how only a few days ago she would have been apathetic to what they had to say. Now that the negative emotions saturating her mind had been purged, she felt with great regret how the world treats the criminals in their society. Just a few days ago, she thought of herself as a powerful, untouchable being with power over everyone, but now she considered herself lower than insects.

Her escorts soon stopped in front of the school building entrance. Saya turned her face away from everyone, who continued yelling insults at her. These were students who had potentially lost close friends to her crimes. The grief they felt must have rivaled or exceeded the grief Saya felt when she saw her injured mother. 

Eventually, the students that had gathered into a circle around her quieted down, and seconds later the clomping of footsteps could be heard coming from inside the building. As the police left Saya to watch from the crowd, she continued to shield her face from the world around her until she heard a soft, shy voice in front of her. 

“Saya-chan…”

Saya convinced herself to uncover her face and look ahead of her, and upon seeing the gentle, compassionate face her friend Rimi always possessed, she broke down into tears, unable to say or do anything else. There was a soft touch on her back a few moments later as the rest of Poppin’ Party approached her. It was a bittersweet meeting for them; they were indeed happy to see their friend safe and sound, but after knowing everything that she did, they could never see her the same way again.

Of course, each of them had the same question in their minds they wanted to be answered. “Saya…” Kasumi’s pained voice was the first to ask. “Why?”

“What… what was going on inside your head?!” shouted Arisa.

“You’ve traumatized Rimi,” Tae muttered under her breath. “Now she’s scared of eating any kind of chocolate now…”

“You guys…” Saya began to speak in a shaky voice. “You guys are just so lucky… lucky that you never lived the life I had! Ahaha… I’m so jealous of all of you… never having to deal with the insurmountable problems I get…”

“W-What do you mean?” asked Kasumi.

“I have to wake up early every day to take care of some errands my parents had left me, mostly concerning the bakery. I have to prepare the kitchen for the day since my mother cannot do it herself anymore. I have to mix every ingredient and form every pastry that goes on our bakery shelves. I know I can’t afford to make mistakes because what I do directly affects how much money our family earns. Once I’m done, I have to head off to school where I’m greeted with the exhausting burdens of doing schoolwork. Studying for the next test, finishing homework, all that. Even though it's difficult, the thought of landing a good job in the future is what motivates me to get good grades. And you, you guys, you motivate me too! Seeing and chatting with all of you uplifts me, and more so when I play for the band! Watching over and seeing you guys succeed encourages me to do my best! Sadly, the time will always come when it’s time to part ways for the day. So I head home and then do the next batch of errands assigned to me. Help with cooking dinner, wash the dishes, assist Sana and Jun with their homework. And every time I do something my parents don't like, I get yelled at! When Dad’s having a bad day or if he’s out boozing again, he might even threaten to harm me! Most of the time, at the end of the day I wouldn’t be able to do the things I wanted or needed to do myself; my homework, for instance! My daily life has always involved the same tribulations.”

“Let’s go to my father. He’s pretty much the reason why I even became like this. He was the breadwinner of the family, having landed a very good job early on in his adult life. It was through his earnings did he put up the business you see us running now, the Yamabuki Bakery. My mother was the one who handled the business because she loved baking all sorts of pastries for us as kids. The bakery was more of a hobby job than anything else, something to keep my mother busy. Then one day, the company that my father was working for suddenly went bankrupt. He had lost his powerful position in the company he had worked in for twenty years. That event must have crushed him because he must have had a special place in his heart for that company. And when he wasn’t able to find a job that was able to provide the salary he needed to sustain us, that’s when he began to feel hopeless and depressed. He must have felt like he just wasted a big chunk of his life working towards nothing.”

“So he started getting into all sorts of vices, slowly becoming the wretched man he is now. He already had a short temper during his workdays, and as time went on it had just become shorter. He was also more prone to inciting violence over little things, even to us, his family! Multiple times had he threatened to harm my mother, me, Sana, Jun! Then one day, he just went loose and attacked my mother over a petty argument. Fortunately, I was there to stop him and quell the situation, but not before seeing my mother get beaten badly. What kind of family had we fallen to? I thought over and over again ever since that day. And ever since, I swore bloody revenge against him. I swore to end his tyranny with my own hands. That was where I began developing the mindset of a killer.

“Things only got worse from there. Mom became unable to work anymore because of an illness, so that meant I had to step up. But balancing my time between everything eventually became too difficult for me to handle. I began cutting corners everywhere, and that’s when the quality of our products at the bakery began to fall. My dad, not the responsible man he once was anymore, shouted at me, pressuring me to think of a way to save the bakery. There was already so much pressure from the life I was living then, and he just had to come and put even more! That angered me so much! So why didn’t you tell anyone about how you felt, you ask? Why would I tell anyone about my problems? You’re all going to tell my father in the end and he’ll surely make me pay for it!”

“Then I broke. Chisato-san visited the bakery one day and told me that the food was lacking. That day, after trying so many times to improve the taste of our food, I was so confident that this new recipe was going to be the one. Then she comes by and shuts it down. And that was the end of her. I tortured and killed her over a chocolate cornet! Who would kill someone over a chocolate cornet?! Me! I found out blood acts as a flavor enhancer, and that it works great with chocolate! That was my last resort in saving the failing bakery. Now I remember what Sayo-senpai had told me. ‘Murderer for a day, murderer forever.’ Her statement held, and now I’m incarcerated and awaiting trial. I can’t blame anyone else for my actions but myself at this point. I let my emotions take control of my mind and body, and for as long as I live I will regret letting myself surrender to my problems. I’m sorry, everyone… I’m so sorry…”

“Still! All of that does not justify everything that you did!” Arisa interrupted. “Do you think all of those will excuse everything you’ve done? Do all of your problems equal the amount of pain and hurt you’ve done to those you’ve killed? To their friends? To their families? I thought you were the most stable person in our band, Saya! The person all of us can rely on! But I guess I was mistaken, after all.”

Saya was left speechless. All she could do was look away as the rest of their band stared at Arisa, who faced away from the drummer. But the sudden sound of their keyboardist sniffling caused Saya to look up once more.

“Maybe I just wasn’t there for you when you needed me. Maybe we just weren't there for you when you needed us.” Arisa spoke through her tears. “We all faced towards you to help us but we were never there when you needed us the most. Maybe none of this would’ve happened if we were JUST there for you! I know it’s too late now, but if I could go back in time… I would’ve done everything I could to help, just so all of this didn’t have to happen!”

“Arisa—”

“She’s right, Saya…” Tae spoke up. “If only I paid more attention, maybe we could have noticed that you weren’t alright. We are your friends and not realizing that you needed help just meant we aren’t good friends towards you.”

“I should’ve stopped asking for cornets every time… But you just kept giving them to us, for free!” Rimi started to tear up as well. “Had I known what was happening, I should have just paid for everything instead…”

“I always asked you for everything… Ever since I entered Hanasakigawa and met you on the first day, it had always been favors and requests to you. You helped me in forming the band, you helped me in schoolwork, you even joined our band even though you already had too much in your hands!” Kasumi was the last one to cry but hers was the most heartfelt. “You kept doing things for us but we never did anything for you. You were doing your schoolwork alongside ours! You were doing band practice along with maintaining the bakery! Had we realized it was too much…”

Kasumi then knelt in front of Saya and cried on top of her lap. “I’m sorry…” she sobbed, her teardrops staining Saya’s hospital gown. “I’m so sorry, Saya! All these days we were together… I was so oblivious to the problems you were facing! You’ve done so much for me, for us… and what did I do in return? I failed… I failed as a friend… and now look at what happened to you…”

“K-Kasumi…”

Everyone watching became silent as Poppin’ Party’s shining star vocalist broke down into despair in front of them. It was a very difficult scene to watch, especially for the band members who now deeply regretted turning a blind eye towards their friend. And for her best friend to say that she wasn’t fit to be called one broke Saya’s heart even more. Those were the last words she ever wanted to hear come out of her mouth. She really was stupid, wasn’t she? Making her best friend cry just like that?

Knowing that this was going to be the final time that they would be able to share precious moments as a whole, Rimi, Arisa, and Tae huddled beside Saya and Kasumi and gave them a tender, heartwarming group hug. 

“I’m going to miss you so much, Saya-chan…” sobbed Rimi. “I’m going to miss your bakery and all the yummy treats you sold…”

Tae whispered sorrowfully, also becoming overwhelmed with emotion. “Thank you… thank you for being a part of Poppin’ Party, and for being a great friend. Our irreplaceable drummer…”

“I’ll never forget the wonderful memories we had together!” Arisa spoke in between sobs. “L-Like the Halloween celebration we had just a few weeks ago, and that time during the festival… Ugh! There’s just so many to remember…”

“I… I love you, Saya…!” Kasumi broke away from her and looked at her with tearful eyes. “No one in this world will ever replace… such a wonderful friend… like you…”

Saya raised her head at Kasumi and stared at her, astonished at what she had just heard. People still… loved her? Despite all the wrongdoings that she did, there were still people out there who cared for her? 

If she could only reverse time to the way it was before all this just like what Arisa said, she would gladly do it! Even if her family's situation was close to hopeless, it wasn't the end of the world yet, wasn't it? Who knows for sure, though? Venting to her friends would have relieved some of the pressure trapped inside her, which would enable her to think more clearly. Plus, the support that she'd get afterward will be more than enough to motivate her to save the bakery. And surely they, especially Kasumi, would have the best ideas to bring the bakery back to its former glory. Why did she never think this way in the first place? There was an easy solution to her problems all along! Though now, all she can do is laugh inside her head for finding this out way too late. If only she never let her emotions take over her…

While she was having her momentous feeling of joy, an eerie voice suddenly buzzed inside her head. “You have… one last thing left to do…”

_Huh? What do you mean?_

“Dad is… not dead…”

_But he is… he lies in his blood in the hospital bathroom…_

The voices in her head continued chanting even louder. “Dad is not dead… dad is not dead!”

_What do you mean?! He’s gone! I saw his lifeless body with my very own eyes!_

“Kill Dad! Kill Dad! Kill Dad!”

_He can't be killed! He's dead!_

"He lies in you! He lies in you! Fulfill your wish!”

Saya’s eyes jolted open. It was right; her father was still alive and well! And he’s living inside her very body at this instant! She still had a chance to fill that empty hole inside her!

“Dad is not dead! He lives! He lives inside me!” She stood up and shouted crazily to the crowd around her. “That's right! I can still achieve satisfaction!”

“S-Saya?!” Arisa and her companions stepped back in surprise.

“Ahahahahahahaha! I still have the chance to kill my father with my own hands!”

The crowd gasped as Saya reached underneath her gown and pulled out something she had been hiding all this time: the army knife that her father had used to take his own life just hours ago. She raised it high up in the air, the bloodstained blade sticking out of it. Shocked at the sudden change in her behavior, the rest of Poppin’ Party was stuck frozen in fear in their position. Saya tried mustering the courage to pierce herself with the blade, but she was unable to. Even when she had been given the opportunity to, she still hesitated to perform and finish her ultimate goal.

“Aaugh!”

Saya felt something small rush through her body. Then another one came from her right side. Then the final one broke through her skull in between her eyes. Before she could register what had just happened, she lost her balance and fell face-first to the ground in front of Kasumi, motionless. The crowd watched in horror; others turned their heads away. The blade she was holding fell from her hand and tumbled across the ground, stopping a few feet away from her. The crackle of gunshots echoed several times across the school buildings. 

“SAYA!” Kasumi frantically shook her best friend side-to-side, but the only response she got was the blood slowly pouring out of her head. “Saya… Saya… no… no!”

Arisa, Rimi, and Tae were equally horror-struck at what happened. They had just watched their friend get shot multiple times.

The three officers in charge of handling her holstered their pistols and lowered their heads mournfully as the crowd around them fell silent once more. They anticipated Saya might try and do something harmful again, so when they saw her pull out a weapon, they acted by their code and fired their guns. But what they didn’t know was that Saya never intended to kill or harm anyone else during that moment. Despite having completely lost her urge to kill, she was misunderstood and was downed like a serial killer. Not even her friends saw her as a killer anymore; what they saw was a fragile-hearted girl driven to insanity by the problems she was too afraid to face. She chose herself to be her sixth and final victim so that she could finally have the satisfaction of fulfilling the longtime wish she was never able to achieve, but in the end, she never even got the chance to do so. 

Kasumi continued to weep over her nonmoving friend when the officers and the nurse slowly approached the scene. They flipped Saya’s body on her back and found where the bullets had entered: one through her chest, one through her arm and into her stomach, and the other through her face into her brain. The nurse then held her ear to Saya’s mouth to check for breathing, and when that was unsuccessful touched her wrist with two fingers to check for a pulse. She looked at her watch and shook her head when she could not find that either.

At four forty-four in the afternoon of the sixth of November, Saya Yamabuki, drummer of Poppin’ Party, murderer of five, witness of family desperation and hapless victim of inevitable destiny, was pronounced dead. 


End file.
